1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator which prevents a refrigerating compartment thereof from being overcooled due to sudden discharge of unnecessary cooling air from a refrigerating compartment evaporator to the refrigerating compartment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a conventional refrigerator supplies cooling air provided from a cooling cycle to a storage compartment to cool it down and to keep food stored therein fresh for a long time. Recently, an independent cooling type refrigerator has been developed, in which an evaporator is disposed in the storage compartment including a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment, respectively, to keep food at its optimal state.
The independent cooling type refrigerator includes a cooling air supplier on a rear side of the freezing compartment and the refrigerating compartment, respectively. Each cooling air supplier includes an evaporator and a fan. The cooling air supplier inhales cooling air at a high temperature due to circulation to the freezing and refrigerating compartments, respectively into the corresponding evaporator for heat exchange, and forcibly sends the cooling air at a lower temperature due to the heat exchange to the freezing and refrigerating compartments, respectively, again through the fan.
In the conventional independent cooling type refrigerator, the cooling air is continuously generated from the refrigerating compartment evaporator due to refrigerant circulation when the refrigerating compartment stops operating and the freezing compartment operates.
In FIG. 1, the conventional refrigerator includes an inlet 6a of a cooling air inhaling path 6 disposed on upper opposite sides of an evaporator 4, thereby preventing the cooling air continuously generated around the evaporator 4 from being introduced to a lower part of the refrigerating compartment and overcooling of the lower part of the refrigerating compartment when the refrigerating compartment reaches a predetermined temperature, and a fan 2 to circulate the cooling air, stops operating. Then, the cooling air which has circulated inside of the storage compartment is inhaled through the inlet 6a of the cooling air inhaling path 6 disposed on the upper opposite sides of the evaporator 4. The inhaled cooling air is guided along the cooling air inhaling path 6 to exchange heat with the evaporator 4, and discharged to an upper part of the evaporator 4 through an outlet 6b of the cooling air inhaling path 6.
Since the inlet 6a and the outlet 6b of the cooling air inhaling path 6 are disposed on the upper sides of the evaporator 4, the cooling air flow is formed only on an upper part of the storage compartment corresponding to the upper part of the evaporator 4, and is not smooth on a lower part thereof. That is, as the cooling air does not reach the lower part of the storage compartment, the lower part of the storage compartment includes a higher temperature than that of the upper part thereof.